Desperate Measures Read Online Free PDF

Buzz thought, so would he.
    â€œYou did well,” Ani said. With three flicks of his stone knife, he cut the cords around Buzz’s screen and let it drop to the floor.
    His whole arm tingled. He stared at the pattern left behind on his skin—red diamond shapes, bigger around his shoulder and smaller toward the wrist. It was like the full-sleeve tattoos he’d seen on lots of people back home. But never on kids. And definitely never on someone like him, an eleven-year-old gamer who didn’t exactly have a reputation for being tough. Not before all this, anyway.
    Jane eased her arm out next. Her face was wet with sweat, but not tears. At nine years old, she was the youngest one out here, but nobody complained less than Jane.
    That left only Mima. All of the others had finished. She stayed steadfast, up to her armpit in the hot liquid. Her eyes were like glass. Her mouth was set in a line that showed no emotion, no pain. Buzz hadnever known anyone so unafraid of anything as her.
    For years, Mima had lived as an outcast among the Nukula, ever since her parents had committed the unpardonable crime of trying to leave the tribe. They’d paid with their lives in the island’s killer tides and left behind a daughter whose only chance for redemption was
Raku Nau
itself.
    Now, with a
seccu
around her neck, Mima had a chance to claim her place as an adult in the tribe. Even Laki watched with approving eyes while Mima gutted it out longer than anyone.
    Up to now, the marking ceremony had taken place in silence. All Buzz heard was the hiss and spitting of the fire. But a sudden commotion from overhead seemed to fill the room with noise. Several people were moving through the jungle nearby. And then a voice came down through the foliage-covered bamboo ceiling. Whoever it was sounded urgent, but the only word Buzz understood was “Chizo.”
    Before the messenger had even finished, Laki was on the move. He headed up the tunnel toward the canoes and
Trehila.
Ani whispered to Mima, whoslowly pulled her arm out of the dye, as all of the others began to follow the chief out of the arena.
    â€œChizo has arrived on the eastern shore,” Ani told them. “He will be sent straight to the top of
Trehila
, while the tribe witnesses his exile.”
    â€œHow long does he have to stay up there?” Vanessa asked.
    â€œPerhaps for a season or more. Perhaps a year,” Ani said.
    â€œA
year
?” Jane asked.
    â€œI never thought I could feel sorry for him,” Vanessa said, “But—”
    â€œDon’t even,” Buzz interrupted her.
    Buzz had been the one taken captive by Chizo, in the midst of
Raku Nau
. He was the one who’d been tied up and attacked by an army of fire ants while Chizo watched, and even laughed. Sympathy was the last thing on Buzz’s mind right now.
    â€œCome on,” he said, and moved toward the tunnel behind all the others. “I don’t want to miss this.”

    Everyone had gathered at the base of
Trehila
by the time Vanessa, Buzz, Jane, Mima, and Ani got there. The giant screen still stood in the closed position, but Chizo was there now, along with the two guards Laki had sent to retrieve him.
    Vanessa had never noticed how much Chizo and Laki looked alike. Chizo seemed to be pleading with his father, from the way his voice went up and the way he kept trying to catch Laki’s eye.
    Laki stood with his hands behind his back, staring at the ocean as though Chizo wasn’t even there. A few murmured to Laki from the side, but he ignored them, too.
    Finally, Chizo stopped trying. He turned away from Laki and stepped onto the first rung of the vine ladder that ran to the top of
Trehila.
As he did, Laki broke his own silence with a single word.
    â€œShesto!
”
he said.
    Chizo slowly turned back to look at Laki again, and Laki held out a hand. His palm was flat, as though he was expecting something.
    â€œMa betta e tikko fotza,